SA women in frontline of world Aids
By, iafrica.com, November 21, 2006
Sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for almost two-thirds of all people infected with HIV and 72 percent of global Aids deaths, remains the world's hardest hit region, according to the 2006 UNAids epidemic update released on Tuesday.
With 24.7 million people living with HIV/ Aids, sub-Saharan Africa has 63 percent of the adults and children living with the virus worldwide, the UN agency said.
A huge and disproportionate 59 percent of sub-Saharans Africans with HIV are women, the report added.
In 2006, 2.8 million Africans became infected, and despite substantial progress in providing life-enhancing antiretroviral drugs, 2.1 million people died — 72 percent of the 2.9 million people reckoned to have died worldwide as a consequence of the virus.
Significant increase in ARV treatment
By June this year, around one million people on the continent were receiving antiretrovirals, a tenfold increase since December 2003.
But "the sheer scale of need in this region means that a little less than one quarter (23 percent) of the estimated 4.6 million people in need of antiretroviral therapy in this region are receiving it," UNAids said.
Worst-hit across the region remains southern Africa, accounting for 32 percent of people infected and 34 percent of Aids deaths.
In SA, it's the women…
In South Africa, as in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, the epidemic disproportionately affects women, the report said.
"Young women (15-24 years) are four times more likely to be HIV-infected than are young men: in 2005, prevalence among young women was 17 percent compared to 4.4 percent among young men."
In slightly older women, aged between 30 and 34, one in three was living with HIV in 2005 compared with one in four men aged between 30 and 39.
In all, one out of nine South Africans — 5.5 million of the more than 47 million population — were living with HIV in 2005, 240 000 of them aged under 15.
"Having emerged a little later than most other HIV epidemics in the sub-region, South Africa's epidemic has now reached the stage where increasing numbers of people are dying of Aids," UNAids said, adding that total deaths from all causes shot up 79 percent from 1997 to 2004, though the exact proportion attributable to Aids was unknown.
South Africans not feeling at risk
Despite the high HIV death toll, a large number of South Africans did not feel at risk, the agency said. During a national household survey in 2005, half the respondents found to be infected had reported previously that they felt at no risk of acquiring HIV.
"Approximately two million South Africans living with HIV do not know they are infected," UNAids added.
In Zimbabwe, on the other hand, HIV prevalence has fallen, with infection levels in pregnant women dropping from 30-32 percent in the early 2000s to 24 percent in 2004. Nevertheless around one in five Zimbabwean adults is living with HIV, one of the worst HIV epidemics in the world.
World's highest prevalence
The world's highest prevalence was reported in Swaziland, where one out of three (33.4 percent) adults is affected.
In East Africa — where prevalence rates are lower — Uganda is stabilising, while Kenya, Tanzania and, to a lesser extent, Rwanda are continuing to register a decline.
Burundi, where a sentinel survey showed a sharp rise among young pregnant women, was one exception.
West and Central African nations, including Africa's most populous nation Nigeria, continue in general to have far lower prevalence rates, under two percent in Benin, Guinea and Senegal, and at around four percent or less in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Togo.
AFP
Source: http://iafrica.com/news/sa/448988.htm
Sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for almost two-thirds of all people infected with HIV and 72 percent of global Aids deaths, remains the world's hardest hit region, according to the 2006 UNAids epidemic update released on Tuesday.
With 24.7 million people living with HIV/ Aids, sub-Saharan Africa has 63 percent of the adults and children living with the virus worldwide, the UN agency said.
A huge and disproportionate 59 percent of sub-Saharans Africans with HIV are women, the report added.
In 2006, 2.8 million Africans became infected, and despite substantial progress in providing life-enhancing antiretroviral drugs, 2.1 million people died — 72 percent of the 2.9 million people reckoned to have died worldwide as a consequence of the virus.
Significant increase in ARV treatment
By June this year, around one million people on the continent were receiving antiretrovirals, a tenfold increase since December 2003.
But "the sheer scale of need in this region means that a little less than one quarter (23 percent) of the estimated 4.6 million people in need of antiretroviral therapy in this region are receiving it," UNAids said.
Worst-hit across the region remains southern Africa, accounting for 32 percent of people infected and 34 percent of Aids deaths.
In SA, it's the women…
In South Africa, as in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, the epidemic disproportionately affects women, the report said.
"Young women (15-24 years) are four times more likely to be HIV-infected than are young men: in 2005, prevalence among young women was 17 percent compared to 4.4 percent among young men."
In slightly older women, aged between 30 and 34, one in three was living with HIV in 2005 compared with one in four men aged between 30 and 39.
In all, one out of nine South Africans — 5.5 million of the more than 47 million population — were living with HIV in 2005, 240 000 of them aged under 15.
"Having emerged a little later than most other HIV epidemics in the sub-region, South Africa's epidemic has now reached the stage where increasing numbers of people are dying of Aids," UNAids said, adding that total deaths from all causes shot up 79 percent from 1997 to 2004, though the exact proportion attributable to Aids was unknown.
South Africans not feeling at risk
Despite the high HIV death toll, a large number of South Africans did not feel at risk, the agency said. During a national household survey in 2005, half the respondents found to be infected had reported previously that they felt at no risk of acquiring HIV.
"Approximately two million South Africans living with HIV do not know they are infected," UNAids added.
In Zimbabwe, on the other hand, HIV prevalence has fallen, with infection levels in pregnant women dropping from 30-32 percent in the early 2000s to 24 percent in 2004. Nevertheless around one in five Zimbabwean adults is living with HIV, one of the worst HIV epidemics in the world.
World's highest prevalence
The world's highest prevalence was reported in Swaziland, where one out of three (33.4 percent) adults is affected.
In East Africa — where prevalence rates are lower — Uganda is stabilising, while Kenya, Tanzania and, to a lesser extent, Rwanda are continuing to register a decline.
Burundi, where a sentinel survey showed a sharp rise among young pregnant women, was one exception.
West and Central African nations, including Africa's most populous nation Nigeria, continue in general to have far lower prevalence rates, under two percent in Benin, Guinea and Senegal, and at around four percent or less in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Togo.
AFP
Source: http://iafrica.com/news/sa/448988.htm
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 11:33 am
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